Mechanism to enable firing of shotgun with one arm



A. H. CROUCH Feb. 7, 1961 MECHANISM TO ENABLE FIRING OF SHOTGUN WITH ONEARM Filed July 15, 1959 INVENTOR A 512 H. CRoucI-l BYZ/zlioifa'ATTOEA/EXS- United tates MECHANISM T ENABLE FIRING OF 'SHOTGUN WITH ONEARM Alfred H. (French, 21236 Cabrillo Highway, Malibu, Cal1f., asslgnorof one-half to Rudolph A. Donatelli, Santa Monica, Calif.

Filed July 15, 1959, Ser. No. 827,383

4 Claims. (CI. 42-69) This invention relates generally to firearms andmore particularly to an improvedshotgun, primarily for use by policemen.

Conventional shotguns include a barrel, breech mechanism, and shoulderstock all of generally an overall length corresponding to rifle-typefirearms. To increase the portability of shotgunsas well as the facilitywith.

. ably shortened without sacrifice in accuracy to the end that it may beeasily handled by one hand and carried in such a manner as to beimmediately available for instant use.

A more particular object of the invention is to provide an improvedshotgun which may be readily fired from the window of a speedingautomobile during pursuit of outlaws.

1 More general objects of the invention are to provide an improvedshotgun which may be manufactured without any substantial increase ofcost over the manufacture of conventional shotguns or which if desiredmay be constructed by effecting relatively simple modifications on aconventional shotgun.

These and many other objects and advantages of this invention areattained by removing the conventional shoulder stock and substituting ayoke, preferably swivelled to the rear end of the'breech mechanism oftheshotgun. Thisoperation results in a considerable shortening of the gunwithout any shortening of the barrel itself so that the accuracy of thegun is not impaired. The shotgun further includes a modified fore-endmember cradling a portion of the'underside of the barrel wand includinga pistol grip handle extending downwardly Q therefrom. In a preferredembodiment of the invention, -the position of the handle may be adjustedintermediate the front end of the barrel and the breech structure; Thepist ol:grip-handle includes a trigger coupled through an actuatingmeans to the triggering niechani'srn in the breech structure of the gunso that firing of the gun may,

be efiected at the pistol grip handle.v 7

With theforegoing modifications, the improved shotgun may be readilycarried and fired by either hand of an operator or passed through anautomobile window, the yoke member cradling either the inside upper armportion of the user or the users shoulder, and the pistol grip handlebeing grasped in the same manner as a con- Figure 1 is a sideelevational view partly broken away of the improved shotgun of thisinvention;

Figure 2 is a cross section taken in the direction of the arrows 22 ofFigure l Figure 3 is an enlarged elevational view partly in crosssection of that portion of the pistol grip handle and trigger enclosedwithin the circular arrow 3 of Figure l; and,

Figure 4 is another enlarged view partly cut away and partly inperspective of the yoke securing means enclosed within the circulararrow 4 of Figure 1.

Referring first to Figure 1 the improved shotgun includes a conventionalbarrel 10 and breech structure 11. As shown, a portion of the breechstructure is broken away to reveal the conventional sear 12 pivoted at13.

In a conventional shotgun, there would extend downwardly from this leverthe conventional trigger.

Rather than a conventional shoulder stock, there is provided a yokemember 14 coupled to the rear end of the breech structure 11 by aswivelling means 15. The forward portion of the barrel 10 on the otherhand is cradled by a fore-end member 16 provided on its underside with adove-tail shaped longitudinal groove 17.

As shown in both Figures 1 and 2, a similarly dovetail shaped slidablemember 18 is received within the groove 17 and includes a set screw 19whereby the position of the slidable member 13 along the longitudinalgroove 17 may be adjusted. The slidable member 18 forms the upper end ofa pistol grip handle 21) provided with a trigger 21 for moving anactuating rod 22 longitudinally with respect tothe slidable member 18.

The actuating rod 22 extends rearwardly from the groove 17 and curves at23 to pass adjacent to the breech structure 11 as at 24. The end of therod terminates in an inwardly bent engaging portion 25 for actuating thesear 12. By this arrangement, the firing mechanism within the breechstructure 11 may be operated by the 22 includes an adjustable means inthe form of a threaded member 26 so that the length of the rod 22 can beeffectively varied in accordance with the position set for.

the pistol grip handle 20. A shoulder sling S may 'be provided extendingbetween the handle 20 and yoke as shown.

Referring now to Figure 3, the details of the trigger 21 and the mannerin which it actuates the actuating rod inder 29 having a reduceddiameter cylindrical portion 3 This safety catch mechanism moves in andout of 1 the plane of the drawing of Figure 3. .When thesafety outercylinder 29.

catch is in. its safety position, the structure is moved out of theplane of Figure 3 slightly so that jthe' projecting end 28 of thetrigger 21 engages the periphery of the When the safety catch mechanismis moved in the other direction, that is, into the plane referring to apreferred embodiment, thereof as illusf the paper, the outer cylinder 29disengagesfrom the end 28 and the end is free to swing in a clockwisedirection about the pivot point 27 upon actuation of the trigger as,indicated in dotted lines.

i The trigger 21 also includes an upper engaging end 31 I receivedwithin arcut out portion 32 in the rod 22. By

this arrangement, it will be evident that when the trigger is rotatedabout the pivot 27, the upper engaging fend-31 will vurge the actuatingrod 22 to the right thereby trigger,

3] ing the sear 12 shown in Figure 1. The forward end of the slidablemember 18 terminates in a shoulder 33 for housing a compression spring34 between the shoulder and the extreme right hand end of the actuatingrod 22 so that the rod is always biased to the left thereby normallyurging the trigger 21 to its solid line position.

To prevent any inadvertent operation of the actuating rod 22 itself, therod may include an additional cut-out 22 receiving an upwardly extendingcatch 29" from the outer cylinder 29 of the safety catch. This catchwill be moved out of the cut-out 22 of the rod 22 when the safety catchis moved to its off position.

Figure *4 illustrates one means for mounting the yoke 14 to the rear endof the breech structure '11. As shown, the rear endof the breechstructure 11 includes a central threaded bore 35. Similarly, the swivelmember secured to the yoke 14 includes a bore lined with a sleeve 36. Abolt 37 passes through sleeve 36 to thread int'o bore and upontightening'will pullthe swivel member 15 into engagement with the end ofthe breech structure 11. The member 15 and yoke 14 may thus rotate aboutthe longitudinal axis of the gun by turning about the head of the bolt.

in addition to the foregoing structure, the outer peripheral end of theswivel mechanism 15 includes a small well 33 housing a spring 39exerting an outward force on an indexing ball 40. The ball 40 in turn ispartially receivablc in any one of a series of indents 41 in the breech.

By the above arrangement, the spring 39 will urge the ball within one ofthe indents 41. If now it is desired to change the angle of the plane ofthe yoke arms with resnect to the vertical, the yoke member 14 may berotated about the longitudinal axis of the gun, the ball 49 retractinginto the well '38 until it is in position to be received in another oneof the indents. The yoke 14 may thus be swiveled into any of severalpositions depending upon how the gun is being used.

In operating the improved shotgun, the user may grip the pistol grip 20with either his right or left hand with the yoke 14 cradled about theinside of the persons arm immediately above the elbow. In this instance,the yoke 14 will be rotated so that the plane of its arms will besubstantially horizontal. The gun would then be fired from approximatelya waist high position. Alternatively, the yoke member 14 may be swiveledto the position shown in Figure 1 and serve to cradle the personsshoulder. This position would be desirable when shooting the shotgunfrom an automobile window. Again, either the right arm or left arm maybe used depending upon which side of the car the policeman is sitting.

From the foregoing description, it will be evident that the presentinvention has provided a greatly improved shotgun which can bemanufactured for substantially no increase in price over conventionalshotguns. Further, the arrangement of the component parts is such that aconventional shotgun could readily be modified or adapted by simplyremoving the conventional stock and substituting the yoke 14 and the newfore-end member 16 for the conventional fore-end member employed. Thesafety catch mechanism constituting the compound structure 29, 29' and30, shown in Figure 3 prevents any inadvertent movement of either thetrigger 21 or actuating rod 22 when in its safe position. The overallimproved structure thus provide a shotgun in which accuracy is notsacrificed and yet which is of an overall length considerably shorterthan conventional shotguns whereby the various advantages set forthheretofore are achieved.

Various modifications falling within the scope and spirit of thisinvention will occur to those skilled in the art. The improved shotgunis, therefore, not to be thought of as limited to the particularembodiment set forth merely for illustrative purposes.

What is claimed is:

1. A shotgun comprising, in combination: a barrel terminating in abreech structure at its rear end, said breech structure including ascar; a yoke member; means securing said yoke member to the end of saidbreech structure; a fore-end member cradling a portion of the undersideof said barrel, said fore-end member having a longitudinal dove-tailshaped groove running along its underside; a pistol grip handleincluding an upper dove-tail shaped slidable member receivable in saidgroove whereby said pistol grip handle extends downwardly and ispositionable along the underside of said fore-end; a trigger pivotablymounted in said handle and having an engaging end extending upwardlythrough said slidable member into said groove; and an actuating rodhaving one end portion movable within said slidable member and engagedby said engaging end of said trigger and its other end portion extendingout the rear end of said groove adjacent to said breech to engage saidsear, whereby actuation of said trigger moves said rod to trip said scarand enable firing of said shotgun with one arm.

2. The subject matter of claim 1, including spring means positionedbetween the forward end of said rod and the forward end of said slidablemember to bias said rod in a rearward direction against said engagingend of said trigger.

3. The subject matter of claim 2, including means in said actuating rodfor varying the length of said actuating rod.

4. The subject matter of claim 3, in which said means securing said yokemember to the end of said breech structure includes a swivel structuremounting said yoke member for rotation about the longitudinal axis ofsaid shotgun whereby the angle of the plane including the arms of saidyoke member with respect to the vertical may be varied.

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